Serv-U is a "server" program, also called a "daemon". The term daemon comes from ancient Greek mythology. There, the Daemons were half-gods, acting as messengers between the people on earth and the gods. This FTP server acts, likewise, as a messenger for file transfer between FTP clients and your computer. Once started it sits in the background waiting for a client to contact it and after communications are established, acting out the client's commands.
The FTP daemon of Serv-U is contained in the ServUDaemon.exe program. When started the daemon does not have any user interaction, it runs hidden in the background. Normally you do not interact directly with it, rather, the Administrator program or tray icon is used to start and stop the daemon.
The Serv-U daemon can run as a native system service on all Windows platforms. A system service in MS Windows starts when the computer is started and continues to run when interactive users log in and out of the desktop. On NT the server is automatically installed as a system service, on Windows 9x/ME you have to check the "Start automatically" checkbox in the "Server" panel to turn Serv-U in to a system service.
In case you are running Serv-U as a system service in NT/Windows 2000/Windows 2003/XP you can not specify a command line, so setting an alternate path for the ServUDaemon.ini file will not work. A work-around is to edit the service entry in the registry and edit the command line parameters directly in there. The registry key is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Serv-U/Imagepath
Just edit the required options directly behind the ServUDaemon.exe entry.
The ServUDaemon.exe program supports a number of command line parameters that may be useful when the server needs to be controlled from schedulers and such. Without parameters running the program will start the daemon. The exception to this is if the server is installed as a system service on NT, in that case starting/stopping can be done through the "Services" applet of Control Panel. The command line parameters are:
/s = stop server
/i = install server as a system service (NT/W2K/XP only)
[ini-file] = alternate path/name for the ServUDaemon.ini file
The Serv-U Engine relies on a number of files to get the work done. Some are always present, others are only created when needed. These files may be present:
ServUDaemon.exe = the Serv-U Engine
ServUDaemon.ini = configuration file with setup for the Engine, domains etc.
ServUStartupLog.txt = Engine information, is overwritten with each server start
ServUCrashReport.txt = crash information in case the server crashes
Serv-UID.old = a copy of the registration key information
ServUCert.crt = self-signed server certificate for secure-FTP
ServUCert.key = server private key for secure-FTP
BugSlayerUtil.dll = library that generates crash info in case of server crashes
ServUPerfCount.dll = library with performance counters routines
Libeay32.dll = library with encryption support routines
SSLeay32.dll = library with SSL/TLS support routines
Serv-U normally does not use the registry but you have the option of storing domains and their associated groups and users in the registry. If the registry is used, all Serv-U related information is stored in a single registry sub-tree:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cat Soft\Serv-U